Someone Else's Legs!

With one week until the National Duathlon Championships, things are not looking too bad considering occurrences outside of training! If I can stay healthy, then it may be a decent race. That said, CJ, my youngest, is suffering with a stomach bug. Having been the target for some projectile vomiting I am hoping that I will not contract the bug!

Training has been ok the past week. A few easy days seem to have done the trick. After the sad showing during the previous weekend’s ride with Turbo man, I took a few very easy days. On Thursday I did a short and sharp turbo session followed by 6 x 400m run efforts with 1 min recovery. The turbo session was most enjoyable and had me dipping in and out of anaerobic land:

Warm up
3 x 15 sec hard/15 sec spin
1 min spin
5 x 15 sec hard/15 sec spin
1 min spin
7 x 15 sec hard/15 sec spin
1 min spin
9 x 15 sec hard/15 sec spin
1 min spin
7 x 15 sec hard/15 sec spin
1 min spin
5 x 15 sec hard/15 sec spin
1 min spin
3 x 15 sec hard/15 sec spin
1 min spin
2 min @ 350W

This is a good session and I monitored my power output. And stayed constant at 400W up to the set of 9 and then 420W to the end. The 2 min @350W seemed like spinning after the short and sharp stuff.

Off the bike, the 6 x 400m went ok too, though the legs were wobbly:

1:26, 1:19, 1:16, 1:19, 1:16, 1:12

These times are quicker than previous efforts so the running may be coming together.

After another 2 easy days I rode with Turbo Man for the last time before he moves to Plymouth . . . Sniff. . . Turbo Man has been a great training partner (on the bike at least! Yes, we have done the odd run together too!). We did 3 hours and I needed some longer efforts. I was on the TT bike, complete with disc and deep rim front so turbo on his road set up was at a disadvantage from the start. He also decided to put someone else’s legs on this Sunday . . .

. . . and he was finding it tough going. I also seemed to have put someone else’s legs on but I was lucky in that they were a good pair! I felt strong and enjoyed the efforts. Off the bike I did the same 5 miles hard run with yet more wobbly legs. This week I averaged 6:12 per mile, as opposed to 6:25 per mile the previous week.

Swimming has also been on the up. I continue to build the swim fitness and I have joined speedy Nige Porter again with some nice sessions. This morning we did 2 x 200, 4 x 100, 8 x 50 all off the minute mark as the main set. I found it tough and did not stay with Nige but I felt smoother and coped better with the pace. 200s were 3:05 and 3:08. 100s between 1:33 – 1:34. 50s between 43 – 44sec. Again, not great times but not bad for me after the winter’s technique work.
Apologies for the lack of pics lately. I still have problems with my computer. Train well bloggers and best wishes to Mat Stephenson, Daz Sharpe and Pete Norris, who are competing in Ironman South Africa on 5 April. Also, Jackie Wren, Pete Russell and myself compete at Milton Keynes at the National age Group Duathlon Champs on 5 April – Let’s pray for decent conditions.

Training Weak. . .I Mean Week?

Another week has slipped by and, with ‘stuff’ going on at home and my intention of bagging another big training week, it’s been a hectic one.

Training for last week looked like this:

Monday: Cycle to pool, swim, cycle back. 1 hour steady run.

Tuesday: Swim. 1:05 EZ Spin and core work.

Wednesday: Swim. Bike/Run efforts as 7 x 1 mile on TT bike followed by 21 x 200m on running track.

Thursday: Cycle to pool, swim, cycle back. 55 min steady run.

Friday: Rest (away with work).

Saturday: 2.5 hour bike with 2 x longish tempo efforts. Run off bike 5 miles at 6:25 miling.

Sunday: Cycle to pool, swim, cycle back.

It doesn’t look that much but with work and home stuff going on, the week was draining. Saturday’s ride with Mick really felt laboured. The previous week, I felt strong but this week was torture. I still tried to do the tempo efforts but the legs were just not there. I thought about binning the 5 mile run off the bike but I knew that I would not be happy having stacked a training session! As it turned out, even though the legs felt terrible, I still maintained a 6:25 per mile average. Mick (Turbo Man) the full time cyclist was going well and I am sure he was laughing as I suffered!

I have upped the swimming now as I need to get some sort of swim fitness. It is coming slowly and I have tagged along with Nige Porter for some sessions now. He is a decent swimmer and is dragging me along to complete proper sessions. The trick is to keep my new stroke and build some speed – not an easy task! Today, I managed to complete 2 sets of 5 x 100 on 2 mins, with 90 sec between the sets. I managed between 1:29 and 1:31 for the first set. I then purposely reduced the effort to try and keep the stroke technique. The times dropped, but not as much as I thought they would and the second set was also consistent between 1:30 and 1:33. This is actually not a bad session for me (timewise) though the effort was quite high. If I can build on these times I may just see some improvements in the swim this year after all.

I have been searching around for a possible new bike. . . . . for some point in the future – like maybe 10 years away! Currently, in no particular order, options would be:

Cervelo P3

Isaac Aerotec

Cannondale Slice

Dream on!

It Is All About The Bike!

Training last week topped 13 hours and I am slightly tired. I had plans to attend the RAF Triathlon training camp at Club La Santa in Lanzarote. However, Julie is still not well and it would not be right to leave her at home for a week while I spent a week in the sun doing what I enjoy!

So, it was business as usual at home. I was away with work all of Friday and could not train. This shifted my rest day and I did a 40 min run on Saturday, followed by 30 mins spinning on the turbo. The run was completed with 30 sec strides on descending recoveries – start at 90 seconds recovery and decrease by 15 sec until the last stride is completed with 15 sec recovery then repeat.
On Sunday, it was up early and meet Turbo Man for a longish ride. I opted to ride with Turbo instead of St Ives CC, as Turbo will soon be gone due to his posting – sniff, another training buddy disappears! Anyway, I thought that Turbo was going to dish some pain out and I waited patiently to be hit with a blistering attack. As it was, Turbo was lost in his new found cycling enthusiasm and he was more than happy just to be on his bike pedalling. Turbo is now truly a pure cyclist! I wanted a couple of longer tempo efforts and I had a loop that we could complete twice. Turbo has explained what happened on his blog but I think that he was merely toying with me – pretending to drift off the back to fool me into thinking I was going well! This happened a few times on the way back too, as we cycled up some very small inclines. It is kind of him to try and make me think that I am going well on the bike but there really is no need! I know that he will be dishing out some speed in the months to come and it will be interesting to see his progress as a cyclist.

I completed the ride on Sunday on my TT bike again, as I am concerned that I have not got the miles under my belt in an aero tuck. Having ridden my TT bike in races since 2006 I thought it was time to replace a few parts. So, on Saturday I fitted a KMC Silver Lightweight Chain.

11/25 10 speed cassette and Token silver ceramic bearing jockey wheels.

The quick link on the chain is so easy, when compared to the Campag once only fit method. The bike feels smooth and fast. Time will tell if the legs can actually make it go smooth and fast!

Great runs at the weekend from RAF Triathletes at the Fleet Half Marathon. Mat Stephenson, out of retirement, showed us all that you never lose your genetic gifts as he ran a personal best 1:15:38. Daz Sharpe still produced 1:23, despite some illness and injury problems. He was disappointed but that merely shows that he is a class performer and the best is still to come from Daz. Mike Masters suffered in the ‘heat’ (what heat?!) but continued despite not having the best of runs by his standards. That said, there are plenty of people who would love to run sub-1:40 for the half-marathon.

Today I cycled to the pool and floundered around like a fish with no fins. Phew, I find swimming so hard! I cycled back and consumed any food within a mile radius before completing an hour run steady with big Nige Porter. Tired now. An easy day tomorrow and then some bike run efforts planned for Wednesday. I hope to get to the track and do 30 x 200m in sets of 3. This is after a bike interval session. I may well do some tabata blasts to jellyfy my legs before the track work.

Bike Position Stuff - Again!

I know, I know, I am always going on about bike position! It's just that for triathlon and time trialing, bike position is so important. I missed breaking the hour for 25 miles by 7 seconds last year; maybe a more aero position will give me those 8 seconds!

Anyway, if you have read this blog recently , you will know that I changed my aero bar extensions, as well as lowering and narrowing my elbow pads. I have tried out the new position over a 3 hour ride and all seems ok. I don't think that there is a loss of power and the position doesn't feel too uncomfortable. . . Well, time trialing is never going to be comfortable!

The pics below show the difference in position from last year to now. The first pic was taken in Holland at the World Long Course Triathlon Champs in Holland.


The second, below, was the other night on my turbo.


I think the second pic clearly shows a more aerodynamic position. A great tip relating to the aero helmet is to get on your tri-bars and tilt your helmet back until you feel it on your upper back. When this happens, you will be aero. There is a large gap at the back of my helmet in the Holland pic - not good! Any increase in performance from a change in position is free speed in my book! I know that I am covering short distance races this year and i won't be on the aero bars for 120k like I was in Holland! However, I did all my racing last year in the position at the top pic. in theory, I should be faster. . . But then I am another year older and clearly massively over weight 8-)

Regarding training this week, I too a couple of easy days after Sunday. I have , however, been hitting the swimming in a big way. Today, I felt a glimmer of full stroke clicking into place - just a glimmer mind you! If I can build on that I may just save my swimming for this year, but the H2O still feels like a big struggle to me.

On Wednesday I did a hard bike run session. I did a 20 mile loop on the race bike that incorporated 5 x 6 min efforts at pretty much full on pace. Off the bike, I went straight into 3 x 1 mile run efforts with 90 sec recovery. The bike efforts had left my legs shot to bits and I was slightly wary of folding on the run efforts. I set the Garmin for 6:10 per mile as the target. As I set off, I felt like a wobbly jelly fish! No matter how many times I run off the bike, it never feels easier. That said, I think the practice makes you run faster with the same amount of pain! First mile done in 6:06. I was shocked as I had thought I was on for 6:30 at best. The second mile felt better. This is often the case in a triathlon race - the legs do loosen up and it well worth telling yourself this when you feel rubbish as you start to run off the bike. I hit 5:48 for the second rep. However, the third rep would be the hardest as there is a substantial hill to negotiate. I have never gone faster than 6:18 when doing this third rep. I pretty much killed myself and managed to hit 6:03. Initially I was pleased with this. But, as ever, I parked that performance and chastised myself for not dipping under 6 mins!

Today has been easy swim and easy bike. The legs feel better from the easy spinning but I have a hunger that cannot be satiated. . . Jaffa Cakes. . . Jaffa Cakes. . . Mmmmmmmm

TT Bike is Cruising

It’s been a busy weekend at home and although Saturday was a recovery day, I felt lousy all day. I thought I might be coming down with an illness but I seemed better today. My continuing uneasiness with my bike set up caused me to take the plunge and change the extensions on the aero bars of my race bike. Gone are the angled carbon bars that I have used for the last 2 years.

The replacements are the Profile T2 (almost straight; they have a mild kink) extensions that were on my training bike. I can only think that I needed to change them due to the increased amount of time I spent in an aero tuck on my training bike during winter training. The swap entailed changing the bar end shifters, which, in turn, meant rethreading the gear cables – a pain, but it went ok.
I put some training wheels n the race bike and it was ready for trial during a longer ride. As St Ives CC were holding their 100 mile reliability ride today, I opted to train with Turbo Man. The Reliability Ride would have been good but I don’t need to ride 100 miles and it would also mean that I was away nearly all day. As it turned out me and T Man had a nice ride, covering over 90k. I had planned to do a couple of tempo 20 min efforts at a brisk but not too hard pace. We did a large loop before entering the local 10 mile TT course. Then it was onto the aero bars for at least 20 mins. I think the tempo effort was around 28 mins and I felt reasonably comfortable, though I have no idea how fast we were going as i do not use a speedo with the race bike. Turbo Man was tucked nicely in my wheel and I am sure he was falling asleep behind me! The new set up felt good – Hoorah! I am lower than last year and narrower too. Hopefully this will result in more speed. I have the capacity to go even lower at the front end and I may play around with this during the club evening time trials in April.

Anyway, another week starts and I hope to really build on the full stroke swimming. Additionally, I aim to get Nige Porter out training on the bike next Sunday! What do you reckon the chances of that are? He is Mr secretive when it come to bike training!

A huge well done to RAF Tri members:

Daz Sharpe – for hanging tough when the chips were down due to his illness. Today I know he completed a 1500m swim, 10k run and a 112 mile turbo ride! And he is still not that well! Stay healthy Daz and sub 10 hours at IM Brazil shall be yours!

John Crewe – for a great run in the Milton Keynes half-marathon. He clocked 1:19, which is non too shabby! JC is looking good for the London Marathon.

Paul Fullalove – for completing a 23 mile training run in 2:58 in preparation for his London Marathon. That is a decent training run Paul; sub 3 hours at London?!

Bev Childs – for winning here age group at the clumber Park Duathlon. . . Again! Looks like bev has started 2009 the same as she finished 2008 – more victories to come?!

Mike Masters – for finishing well up the field in the Clumber Park Sprint Duathlon, despite suffering with cramp. Will 2009 see Mike put it all together and perform to his potential?!

TTFN

Training to Race - Ouch!

After the heavy training last week I decided to take it easy this week. As I commenced my swim session on Monday morning, I could tell I was fatigued. I opted for an easy spin on the TT bike on Tuesday. I had not ridden my race bike since the World long Course Champs last August. Also, I had made some changes to the front end in an attempt to become more aero. Oh dear! What a mess! I felt terrible. I struggled to hold my position for half a mile! How on earth did I ride 120k in an aero tuck in Holland?! The changes that I had made obviously did not agree with me. I have always been able to hop on my bike and go. It was disturbing to say the least, as I am not a happy bunny when I am not ‘at one’ with my bike!

So what had I changed? I had lowered the elbow pads and also made them narrower. Pictures from last year showed that I had a gaping hole that sucked in air and held me back! The sun was shining today so, after making some adjustments to my bike, I commenced a brick session on the road – I normally do a turbo session but I was concerned about not being able to ride my race bike. I warmed up and then did 5 x 1 mile efforts with 1 min recovery on the notorious ‘mad mile’ straight road that crosses the front of RAF Wyton. The efforts felt so different on the road, when compared with turbo efforts. I had set my Garmin to target 25mph for each effort. The wind was not favourable in one direction, which made the going tough. Anyway, these were the times I hit:

2:27 (24.5mph average)
2:18 (26.1mph average)
2:28 (24.2mph average)
2:18 (26.1mph average)
2:29 (24.1mph average)

I found these short efforts hard and I played around with my cadence on the final effort. You can tell when the wind was in my face! My position felt better but I need to make further, minor adjustments. After these efforts I slipped my trainers on and started a run interval session of 8 x 400m with 1 min recovery. I wanted 6 min mile pace but my legs were shot to start with. However, they did start to work better after the first few reps. I guess it shows that if you start off steady, then the legs will get into the groove. These are the times I hit, again, on the ‘mad mile’:

1:36 (6:29 pace)
1:32 (6:10 pace)
1:26 (5:49 pace)
1:24 (5:38 pace)
1:24 (5:38 pace)
1:24 (5:38 pace)
1:26 (5:48 pace – includes a stop coming through the main gate!)
1:20 (5:24 pace)

I suppose I should have stuck to the aim of 6 min mile pace and then gradually get faster as I complete this session in the coming months. But, as normal, it is a case of head down and go! It is a hard session and I know that I have done it now. In fact I have a slight tweak in my calf as a result. The session also reminds me that it is essential to replicate racing in my training. The efforts outside were very different to the turbo induced pain. At one point, I had a thought that if I was training for long course triathlon, I wouldn’t have to push so hard for speed – nah, that is just an easy way out! And we can’t be taking the easy path now. . .

Text Motivation - The Way Forward?

After last week's hard club ride on Sunday, I took an easy day, completing an easy swim and an easy run. On Tuesday I did my strength session. This hurt as the squats are getting heavy and I introduced 5 mins of treadmill running for 5 mins building from 17kph to 18kph. That speed may not seem that fast for 5 mins; however it is done directly after squats and 4 mins of single leg hill simulations on the turbo (30 sec alternating each leg for 4 mins). There is no rest between the squats, turbo and treadmill so the effort level is intense and the legs are resembling jelly whenyou jump on the treadmill. Straight after the treadmill (again, no rest) it's press ups, ab work, pull downs, ab work (all with no rest). Then it's a recovery while I change shoes and repeat twice more. Finish up with some core work and a great session is complete.

I was heavy legged on Wednesday, which is normal after the gym work, so it was just a swim in the morning and a steady run of 6 miles in the evening. On Thursday I did turbo efforts in the form of a pyramid. Now this is a hard session and I nicked it off jase Walkley (well, he allowed me to have it actually!). I use power to gauge the effort so it probably means nothing to you out there. The session is:

Warm up: 15 mins with some spin ups.
1 min @420W 1 min recovery.
45s @ 460W 2 min recovery.
30s @ 500W 3 min recovery.
45s @460W 2 min recovery.
1 min @ 420W
Take 5 min spin recovery
Repeat twice more.

This is a hard session but the effort has to be pushed to make it work. It's taken me a while to find the correct effort level. basically, it has to be pretty much full out! The last minute effort on the way down is the hardest.

An interesting technique trialed by Daz Sharp was text motivation! I texted jase telling him that I was doing the session and we exchanged texts during my recovery spins. The contact was quite motivating and made it feel like the session must be completed! Daz did this whilst he did his mammoth turbo 112 mile ride. We could create a turbo help line system!

I was planning to run off the bike but I had to look after my girls. This left me with the possibility of losing a run effort session. There was only one thing for it, do the run effort session the next day. This would eat into my recovery day but needs must.

So, on Friday I cycled to the running track and did 18 x 200m in sets of 3. This is done as 2 x 200m on 60s and take 90s after the 3rd 200m. That's one set. The aim is to run at tempo pace, so I maintained 39 - 40 sec for each 200m rep. The legs certainly felt the bike from the previous night. In effect, I ended up having 2 hard days in a row and just one recovery day before the club ride came round again on Sunday.

Turbo man was back for the weekend so we met up at 0800 to grab an hour riding like the old days. The T man put in a few digs to stretch the Turbo Booster. I should say he is not in bad shape, despite what he says! And he is very proficient at using his mobile phone camera whilst riding his bike. By the time I reached St Ives to meet the club, I had bagged 24 miles. We then set off and completed another 61 miles. So I got 85 miles in total, with an average speed of 19mph. the first half of the ride with St Ives CC was hard and we averaged over 20mph to the cafe stop. I was tired but managed to keep up ok. The ride back was more sedate and I was happy enough to sit on the front of my group for most of the way back. Nevertheless, I was tired when I got home.

Today was an easy swim and an easy run with Roth-bound Nige Porter. Both of us had tired legs, as Nige had moved house over the weekend and was obviously fatigued. We looked like a couple of old men hobbling along the road! A couple of easy days is called for before I hit the weights again on Wednesday.

Race season is ever closer!! Yippee!! The TT Bike is out and fully loaded for action!